Emergency aid released P 5,000 for each poor family

Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo ordered the release of P5,000 in emergency shelter assistance (ESA) to each poor family affected by Supertyphoon “Lawin” (international name: Haima) in northern Luzon.

In a memorandum circular she issued on Saturday, Taguiwalo directed field offices of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to hand out a uniform amount of ESA for the time being. The balance will be released after the local governments and the DSWD field offices have validated the count of damaged houses.

The DSWD is supposed to give out an ESA amounting to  P30,000 each to families whose homes were destroyed by a disaster and P10,000 to those whose homes were damaged.

ESA funds will be ready to be distributed “in a month,” Taguiwalo said. The DSWD will also provide cash for work for affected families.

Taguiwalo asked the help of local government officials in Cagayan Valley, especially Cagayan and Isabela provinces that were directly hit by the typhoon, in determining the poorest of the poor who were most severely affected.

She said the DSWD wanted to prevent another debacle, as thousands of affected families are still waiting for their ESA three years after Yolanda struck the Visayas.